books

[corianderstem]

I love that sort of thing! I might have to check that out.

My favorite book of that ilk was the novel that Nicole Richie "wrote" (I'm assuming it's a "hellooooo, ghostwriter!" situation, but if she actually wrote it, yay for her).

It was fun trying to figure out just exactly how much the main character's evil cohort was based on Paris Hilton.

 

[lazarus]

#16 How To Be Popular by Meg Cabot

Answer: Don't listen to The Abstinence Teacher


Well, it was certainly worth waiting for that.

 

[corianderstem]

Ha! I'm glad it was worth the wait, and glad I could provide a setup for your punchline.

 

[lazarus]

Speaking of abstinence, where's your (ex-)husband NSW?

I seem to recall a messy divorce spilling over into the forums, and now he's gone missing.

Coincidence?

 

[beegee]

Thought this might be of interest to the book lovers here.

Deathly Hallows will be made into a two-part film.

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2...ts-for-harry-potter-and-deathly-hallows-movie

 

[corianderstem]

Speaking of abstinence, where's your (ex-)husband NSW?

I seem to recall a messy divorce spilling over into the forums, and now he's gone missing.

Coincidence?

I haven't talked to him in a while - I figured I was the one not around, as I haven't been in the usual chatty threads.

Didn't know he'd disappeared.

Didn't know. I swear.

 

[corianderstem]

Thought this might be of interest to the book lovers here.

Deathly Hallows will be made into a two-part film.

I HAD heard that. Should be interesting!

Like the new icon, by the way. I was wondering if you'd ever change it.

 

[beegee]

Thanks!

I didn't think I would ever change it either, lol.

 

[Auhiz]

Recently finished reading Russell Hoban's The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz. I didn't really have any expectations, as the only other book I'd read by this guy was A Mouse and His Child and that was sort of a children's tale, read way back when I was 10. Incidentally the only way I could figure out my age was that for some reason I clearly remember Sara by Starship being top of the charts and playing on the radio a lot when I was reading that book. Anyway, something about the book has stuck in my mind all these years, enough for me to try to track it down as well as other books by the same guy.

The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz was Russell Hoban's first crack at adult fiction after writing a lot of children's stuff, and apparently it was written just after a big family split. I think it's clear in the book that he's getting some tangled stuff off his chest, a lot of it unsurprisingly focused on the feelings between family. The writing is elegant and full of imagery and at times reads like something of a twisted philosophical New Age book. There's a fixation on repetition and symmetry (starting with the title) throughout, especially in the book's major theme of a boy becoming a man and his father choosing to shrug off family responsibilities and recapture some elements of his youth. The lion is a metaphysical thing, symbolic of the feeling between father and son but somewhat real as well, brought to life and described beautifully. As for the tale itself it's vague at times but also elegant, clever and thoughtful enough that it still feels 'right'; as if that's exactly how the author wished to craft it. In summary, worth a read I think!

 

[The Sad Punk]

Thought this might be of interest to the book lovers here.

Deathly Hallows will be made into a two-part film.

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2...ts-for-harry-potter-and-deathly-hallows-movie

Just an excuse to milk the franchise longer?

 

[gherman]

Right now I'm reading "The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve" and "Freakonomics"

My all time favorite book is "The Hot Zone"

 

[corianderstem]

Just an excuse to milk the franchise longer?

I'm sure $$$ figures into it, but I think this is the right decision. There's so much in that book, and they've already received flak for cutting stuff out of the other movies, so I like that they want to give the final movie the full treatment and not skimp on translating the book to the screen.

 

[lazarus]

Did I ever mention that I found a website that had all of J.D. Salinger's uncollected stories, that are only available if you have the old magazines from the 50's that they were published in?

They're all in random formats, so I've been busy trying to edit them into something a bit more uniform for easier reading.

This is a treasure trove of stuff, and the best discovery out there as far as I'm concerned, at least until the guy croaks and we hopefully get to see what he's been working on since his seclusion.

If anyone's interested, I can make a zip file out of it and put it online somewhere.

 

[VintagePunk]

If anyone's interested, I can make a zip file out of it and put it online somewhere.

That'd be great, Laz, I'd appreciate that.

 

[Saracene]

Thought this might be of interest to the book lovers here.

Deathly Hallows will be made into a two-part film.

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/2...ts-for-harry-potter-and-deathly-hallows-movie

I was glad to hear that. Way too much stuff happening in the last book to fit into one movie, even with severe trimming.

 

[corianderstem]

#17 Alone In the Kitchen With An Eggplant - edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler

Essays with the subtitle "Confessions of Cooking For One and Dining Alone." I really enjoyed most of the essays here, and picked up some yummy-sounding recipes.

We'll see if I actually get around to trying them out, since I am way too lazy when it comes to cooking for myself. I usually can't be bothered.

 

[u2popmofo]

I think I'm either going to start reading The Road or No Country For Old Men (both by Cormac McCarthy) today. Any suggestions on which I should choose?

 

[bonoishot]

I have. And they were negative for a reason. Any one who has read Sebold's books know they are not for the faint of heart, but The Almost Moon just crossed the line of taste. And the story itself didn't make much sense. It seemed to me like she rushed to finish it. I honestly can't find anything redeeming to say about it at all. Big waste of money and the time spent reading it.

I loved Alice Sebolds first 2 books. Shame this 3rd one hasn't got as good reviews. Think i might not bother getting it from the library now.

Memoirs of a Geisha is an excellent book. I highly recommend it.

I love this book.

Still reading The Satanic Verses

I tried to read this but just couldn't get into it. Might try go back to it but for now i have just given up.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I'm about halfway through it, but I've been trying to read it since the fall. I read a few chapters, then pick up something else, which is really not like me. The writing is lovely, but it's such a sprawling, complicated tale that it makes my head spin sometimes. There are a lot of secondary characters to mix up. But every time I'm about to give up on it, there's something that really captures my attention. Considering I spend most of my time reading things written by 18 and 19-year-olds, it's good to be reading something that really challenges me. I definitely see a fluff read after this, though

 

[*browneyedgirl*]

I still haven't read what I said I was going to a long time ago but I think I will one day

 

[Saracene]

Finished "In My Skin" by Kate Holden, which is a vivid, clear-eyed and often confronting memoir detailing the author's descent into heroin addiction and the subsequent turn to prostitution in order to sustain her habit. Definitely not for the squeamish as the books gets quite graphic in places, but I thought that the story was beautifully written.

 

[The Sad Punk]

Finished Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. Since it can be read in about 15 minutes, there wasn't really any excuse I had for not reading it. But it was really good, nice and sharp and not too smug. I'll probably keep having a look at similar books for a while.

 

[bonoishot]

I'm about halfway through it, but I've been trying to read it since the fall. I read a few chapters, then pick up something else, which is really not like me. The writing is lovely, but it's such a sprawling, complicated tale that it makes my head spin sometimes. There are a lot of secondary characters to mix up. But every time I'm about to give up on it, there's something that really captures my attention. Considering I spend most of my time reading things written by 18 and 19-year-olds, it's good to be reading something that really challenges me. I definitely see a fluff read after this, though

I barely made it past the first chapter. It was making my head spin too. Maybe i will give it another chance. I had to read 2 fluff books after the one chapter i made it through.

 

[lazarus]

Finished Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. Since it can be read in about 15 minutes, there wasn't really any excuse I had for not reading it. But it was really good, nice and sharp and not too smug. I'll probably keep having a look at similar books for a while.

Did you read Christopher Hitchens' recent book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything? It's probably a lot more smug but I've heard good things about it.

 

[last unicorn]

It's hard for me to contribute something to this topic, because I mostly read German literature, like German expressionist writers, and in recent years I have focused a lot on contemporary Austrian and German literature, most of all poetry and more experimental stuff. I love poetry, I collect it and I'm also interested in poetic theory. I teach literature and work with a lot of poetry from the beginning of the 20th century up to now.

But to add something totally different: I've started to read The Last Unicorn again (in English), just because I love the story and I love unicorns. I like the book so much better than the film and there are scenes in it that are so beautiful, it makes me want to cry.

 

[corianderstem]

#18 How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls by Zoey Dean.

I heard about this book somewhere online - it's been optioned for a movie, or it's being filmed, something like that. So I checked it out.

Yale grad ends up being hired to prep two spoiled heiresses for the SATs and college entry. Hijinks and learned lessons ensue.

It was a really fun read - a lot of it was predictable, but I didn't care. It was fun.

 

[onebloodonelife]

I just finished reading Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis for my rock history class. I'd read American Psycho before and liked it, so I was expecting the same enjoyment out of his first novel. I did end up liking it a lot, though it left me feeling a lot more empty and sad than American Psycho; I think because that book was just absurd enough to laugh at through all of the horrific crimes Patrick Bateman commits.

Less Than Zero follows Clay around L.A. while he's home from New Hampshire on Christmas Break. He joins up with his old friends and falls into the heavy drug and party scene again. What bothered me most about his character was the indifference he had to his friends' actions, most of which were despicable, but Ellis did a great job at portraying some of what the 1980s were all about, at least in the rich class.

 

[Lemonchick]

Just started reading I Like It Like That, the fifth Gossip Girl book.

Guilty pleasures

 

[corianderstem]

I just finished reading Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis for my rock history class.

So what does Bret Easton Ellis have to do with rock history? Are you just studying the coke-fueled 80s, or because it has the title of an Elvis Costello song?

 

[Saracene]

Cormac McCarthy - No Country For Old Men

Great book, with a real sense of time and place and economical but vivid style. I can sometimes be put off by this particular brand of terse, "manly man" writing but I loved it here. I've seen the film before I've read the book and it made for interesting comparisons between the way the same story is treated in two mediums. The cat-and-mouse chase game between Moss and Chigurh kept me on the edge of the seat at the cinema but I found it probably the least compelling thing about the novel. Whereas the film's much-debated ending works a million times better in the book, not in the least because Sheriff Bell's character and presence is so much stronger. The chapters with his musings and monologues scattered throughout the novel were my favourites and his character was so incredibly poignant.